“Chuck” star Zachary Levi revealed to USA Weekend that he had the role of Warriors Three member Fandral locked up in Thor, but his schedule for the series changed that:

And it’s a longer season than they initially thought: NBC originally asked for a 13-episode third season, and then ordered six more. That turned out to be a positive for Chuck but a negative for director Kenneth Branagh’s movie Thor, which starts filming in January. Levi was cast as Fandral, one of Thor’s Warriors Three in the comic book adaptation, and the actor had even been working out especially for the role, but had to walk away when they got the extra pickup. (Levi admits that producers had asked him to audition for the role of the usually beefy God of Thunder, but told them no. “I’m tall and in pretty good shape, but I’m not big and girthy like that,” he says.)